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a blessed land e Story of Ancient, Prophetic Yemen and its Conversion in Early Islamic History A book dedicated to raising funds for the oppressed and impoverished people of Yemen from the Saudiimposed war By Jaff er Ladak © Copyright 2018 Jaff er Ladak First Published in 2018 Cover Design by Zulfi kar Hussein Layout by Islamic Publishing House www.iph.ca All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmi ed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior wri en permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations quoted in articles or reviews. َ َ [ َ َ ُ َ ْ َ َ ُ ْ ُ ْ َ ٌ ْ َ ّ ُ ْ َ ْ َ ْ َ َ ُ ْ ُ ً اس ء ن ِ ر و إِْ ر َ ِ ُ ً َ َ َ ُ َ ْ َ َ ُ َ َ ُ ْ ُ ُ ْ َ ْ َ ْ ُ ِ ِا آ ِِ وا ِِ ِ ِ ر ٍ ِ َ َ ْ َ َ ْ ْ َ ْ َ ً ُ ْ َ ً ] و ٍ و ِ ِ ِِ ِا ِ “O you people! A manifest proof has indeed come to you from your Lord, and We have sent down a clear light to you which distinguishes (the right from the wrong). Now as to those who believe in Allah and hold fast to Him, He will surely admit them to His mercy and to (His) grace and will guide them along a straight and right path (leading) to Himself.” ( r’an, Sūrah alNisā (4:), verses 174175) 2 ﻗﺎل رﺳﻮل اﻟﻠﻪ : َﻣ ْﻦ أَ َﺣ ﱠﺐ أَ ْﻫﻞَ اﻟْﻴَ َﻤ ِﻦ ﻓَ َﻘ ْﺪ أَ َﺣﺒﱠ ِﻨﻲ َو َﻣ ْﻦ أَﺑْ َﻐ َﻀ ُﻬ ْﻢ ﻓَ َﻘ ْﺪ أَﺑْ َﻐ َﻀ ِﻨﻲ Prophet Muammad is narrated to have said, “Whosoever loves the people of Yemen, certainly he has loved me; and whosoever angers them, certainly has angered me.” 2 ﻗﺎل رﺳﻮل اﻟﻠﻪ : ﻟَ ْﻮﻻَ اﻟْ ِﻬ ْﺠ َﺮةُ ﻟَ ُﻜ ْﻨ ُﺖ ْاﻣ َﺮ َءاً ِﻣ ْﻦ أَ ْﻫ ِﻞ اﻟْﻴَ َﻤ ِﻦ Prophet Muammad is narrated to have said, “Had it not been for the migration (to Medina), I would have been from the people of Yemen!” e reward of this book is dedicated to the soul of Haji Amirali MohamedJaff er Nasser Lakha. He was known as a person dedicated to helping those in need. Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................xiii Chapter 1: Ancient Yemen in the r’an ............................................ 31 Chapter 2: e Conversion of Yemen to Islam ...................................55 Chapter 3: Yemen A er its Conversion to Islam ............................... 71 Chapter 4: Leading Personalities from Yemen ................................... 73 Chapter 5: Yemen During the Caliphate of Imam Alī ............... 83 Conclusion................................................................................................... 97 Transliteration Table e method of transliteration of Islamic terminology from the Arabic language has been carried out according to the standard transliteration table mentioned below. ʾ r f ف ر ء a z q ق ز ا b s k ك س ب t sh l ل ش ت th ṣ m م ص ث j ḍ n ن ض ج ḥ ṭ w و ط ح kh ẓ h ﻩ ظ خ d ʿ y ي ع د dh gh غ ذ Long Vowels ā ū ī ي و ا Short Vowels a u i ِـــ ـــ ــ ـُ ـــ ــ ـَ ـــ Terms of Respect e following Arabic phrases have been used throughout this book in their respective places to show the reverence which the noble personalities deserve. Used for Allāh (God) meaning: Glory and Greatness be to Him Used for Prophet Muammad meaning: Blessings from Allāh be upon him and his family Used for a man of high status (singular) meaning: Peace be upon him Used for woman of a high status (singular) meaning: Peace be upon her Used for men/women of a high status (dual) meaning: Peace be upon them both Used for men and/or women of a high status (plural) meaning: Peace be upon them all Introduction Ancient Yemen Yemen’s role in human history, and in particular Arabian history, is especially important as it is known to be one of the oldest civilisations in the Near East. At the beginning of the Christian age, there stood four regions of se led life with organised power and high culture around Arabia. To the west was the Byzantine Empire; while across the Euphrates River reigned the Sassanian Empire over modern day Iran and Iraq; and to the south lay Ethiopia, an ancient kingdom which adopted the Coptic Church as its offi cial religion. e other was Yemen, in southwest Arabia. Albert Hourani, in his A History of the Arab Peoples states that Yemen was: “A land of fertile mountain valleys and a point for long distance trade. At a certain stage, its small local states had been incorporated in a larger kingdom, which had grown weak when trade declined in the early Christian era but revived later. Yemen had its own language, diff erent from Arabic which was spoken elsewhere in Arabia, and its own religion: a multiplicity of gods were served by priests in temples which were places of pilgrimage, voting off erings and private but not communal prayer, and also centres of great estates.” Life was a balance of desert and steppe; nomadic and sedentary forms xvi A Land Most Goodly of living which o en required exchange for the other. Hourani explains the rare oases of the Arabian peninsula allowed for regions of cultivation, “Inhabitants spoke various dialects of Arabic and followed diff erent ways of life. Some of them were nomads who pastured camels, sheep or goats by using the scanty water resources of the desert; these have traditionally been known as ‘beduin.’ Some were se led cultivators tending their grain or palm trees in the oases, or traders and cra smen in small market towns; some combined more than one way of life. Although they were a minority of the population, it was the camelnomads, mobile and carrying arms, who together with merchant groups in the towns, dominated the cultivators and cra smen. eir ethos of courage, hospitality, loyalty to family, and pride of ancestry was also dominant. ey were not controlled by a stable power of coercion, but were led by chiefs belonging to families around which there gathered more or less lasting groups of supporters, expressing their cohesion and loyalty in the idiom of common ancestry; such groups are usually called tribes.” He goes on to say, “ e religion of pastoralists and cultivators seem to have had no clear shape. Local gods, identifi ed with objects in the sky, were thought to be embodied in stones, trees and other natural things; good and evil spirits were believed to roam the world in the shape of animals; soothsayers claimed to speak with the tongue of some supernatural wisdom. e se led societies ruled by the empires were full of questionings about the meaning of life and the way that it should be lived, expressed in the idioms of the great religions.”1 ough these tribal relationships and religious practises remained until the age of Islam, Yemen was regularly exposed to the message of monotheism, and had an intimate relationship with the ancient prophets; some adhered to the call, while others faced divine retribution for their outright spurning and aggression against prophets. 1 Hourani, Albert, A History of the Arab Peoples, pp 1011. Introduction xvii Hadhramawt, a Governorate of Yemen retaining its name since half a millennia before Christ , for example, was the site of two Prophets Hūd and āli who were sent to their tribes, Ād and amūd. Ād arrogant and emboldened by their technological advancement at establishing the world’s fi rst several story high abodes, rejected Prophet Hūd’s call to worship one God. Believing that their lo y buildings could withstand God’s punishment, they challenged Prophet Hūd to bring a destruction which they could not withstand. God reigned down upon them winds and storms for seven days, levelling all of what they had established in opposition to Him. amūd, despite watching the levelling of their neighbours, did not learn from what occurred right before them. Rather than depend on technology, they resorted to a stronger defence, nature, to be resolute in the face of winds. amūd sought refuge by hewing out abodes in mountains, assuming that God could not destroy entire mountainous ranges. is time, a massive earthquake struck, followed by dust storms which engulfed them. eir eventual destructions and preservation of their remains as reminders of God’s power was well known amongst the Arabs with their stories passed down between the generations. Hadhramawt is identifi ed in the Bible in Genesis 10:26 and 1 Chronicles 1:20, while the 11 th chapter of the r’an is named a er Prophet Hūd ; and there are numerous other verses alluding to their story such as in Sūrah alMo’min, “O my people! Surely I fear for you the like of what befell the groups. e like of what befell the people of Nū, Ād and amūd.” 2 A er Prophet Ibrāhīm (Abraham) established the Kabah in Mecca as the symbolism of God’s absolute unity, nearby Yathrib became home to Jews and Christians alike who were awaiting their next prophet. Just as many Jews travelled from Syria to Hijāz, many also se led in 2 r’an , Sūrah alGhafi r (40), verses 3031. xviii A Land Most Goodly Yemen.